Made a Bad Purchase - What to do now??

I had a horse trailer custom made for me out of all aluminum. It is about a foot longer and 6 inches higher than my old steel trailer. It weighs 3600 lbs empty with an empty tongue weight of 700 lbs. The horses travel over the two torsion axles of the trailer. Each axle is rated at 5200 lbs and the GVWR of the trailer is 10,400 lbs. It is 400 lbs heavier than my old steel trailer (GVWR 9950 lbs) which had a tongue weight of 500 lbs because the rear axles of the trailer were closer to the rear of the truck. I was shocked when I hitched it to find that my Tundra (2015 SR5 double cab standard box) did a bad squat. This was just to see without the weight distribution bars attached. I do use them. Ez-Lift chain type on the steel trailer and Fastway/Equalizer trunnion bar type on the new trailer. The steel trailer has only a small squat before putting on the WDH bars. The payload in my truck is 1450 lbs (sucks for a truck with a 4.3 axle ratio and allowable hitch weight of 1100 lbs). What can I do? I would love to keep my new trailer but I love my truck more. I have an ARE cap on the back of the truck - one of those raised wedge-type caps. I would hate to remove it because it is really handy when camping in the rain. How much weight would I gain? I'd lose about 30% of the value of the new trailer trading it in for something lighter. This is a well built trailer with tongue and groove aluminum plank walls. Most lighter trailers just have an aluminum frame with aluminum skin inside and out. Not the safest for the horses!

 

Aftermarket leaf springs should do it. I think that's the way I'd would go.

 

Dont go by just the squat, our springs are super soft . Find out the tongue weight with the horses in it first. Maybe the WDH will make it fine.

 

If you are within specs of the truck loaded, try it with the wdh. That should be the first fix. You can try suspension changes such as new leafs, airbags, or sumo springs. But all those will do is push more weight down on the rear axle. They obviously won’t increase towing or payload capacity beyond mfg specs. The trailer doesn’t sound like it’s too much for a tundra.

 

You may want to look into air bags for the rear. That would prob be the easiest solution. Air them up when you hook up and then air them down when not towing so it doesn’t ride like a brick. The new setups I believe have remote compressors so you can adjust on the fly

 

Air bags.

 

Well you love the TUNDRA and you obviously like the custom made trailer. How much do your horses weigh (trailer loaded) ? To save the weight , you could get rid of the camper shell and get a softopper. That might give some flexibility in depending on your shell. My old shell was about 140lbs. MY newer ARE CX HD is probably 250.I can't remember exact weight.

 

I think the safest comment is in reference to the newer lighter trailers, "Most lighter trailers just have an aluminum frame with aluminum skin inside and out. Not the safest for the horses!"

 

As I read it you added 200 lbs of tongue weight. Hooked up the trailer without your wdh setup and it squatted more than with your old trailer. According to the numbers as stated the next step is to properly set up the wdh and hit the road.

 

No, this custom built trailer is the safest on the market because of the tongue and groove aluminum plank walls - as solid and safe as steel. The lighter trailers are not the safe ones because they only have an aluminum frame and then aluminum skin inside and out. That is why I don't really want to trade it in, aside from losing 30% of what I paid for it.

 

I think my shell (the wedge shaped ones) is about 300 lbs? Mostly I will be transporting only one horse, on the rear axles so not really a difference in tongue which - not sure of the physics involved if there is no weight in front of the axles. The front of the trailer is a dressing room. So it is mostly empty except for saddle and stuff, max 200 lbs.

One other reason for keeping the cap is that it deflects air flow over the trailer, which is 7.5 feet high.

 

My shell is an ARE TW. My horse weighs 1,200 lbs, entirely over the axles though.

 

stupid question maybe but if its custom built after youve trouble shooted the easier stuff and its set up, if theres still an issue would the guys who built it be able to move the front axle a bit further up the trailer towards your truck to even out the weight distribution a bit?

 

Your cap is probably 250 depending on brand. ARE tends to be lighter than Century or Leer because they dont use an additional sheet of plywood in the roof. I would get a weight distribution hitch or look at a pair of Road Master Active Suspension. Below is my truck sitting dead level with over 10K lbs (yes I know I am over my payload/towing capabilities of the truck). But Road Masters work and its a 45min install with a couple of beers.

 

It is old. I need to redo my driveway this weekend so if the rain holds off I will get a pic with the new truck towing.

 

Already looked at moving the axle forward and it is not possible and probably would cause a too light tongue weight when horses are loaded. Since the horse will be in the rear of the trailer, the axles are placed correctly for the weight of the horse(s) to be directly on top of the axles.

 

Ahh ok, i started going over in my head how much of a major rework what i suggested could be and my comment sounded stupider and stupider to me as time went on, lol, hopefully it works out for you once everything is adjusted.

 

Actually not a stupid comment at all. I can remember my grandfather had a trailer where the axle/suspension was on a plate/skid setup and was adjustable forward and backward. Was a pain in the butt to do, but he would move it based on the weight and distribution of his larger loads.

 

Another option would be to look into getting Falcon rear shocks with the quick adjust settings. Easy to click into “tow” mode when needed.

 

Thats really interesting, Ive never built a trailer but got some time right now so was looking up how to, the axles have to be really well squared off to the hitch or else it can cause excessive tire ware, im wondering how that set up worked?

 

That was 25 years ago, so I don't have any pictures of it. I may be off, but aren't semi trailers adjustable?

Yep....just found this video. Is way overkill, but the principle should be the same. I was thinking about this for a travel trailer with a front deck (expandable from 4' to 8' for dirt bikes/atvs/etc) and the impact putting additional weight would have on the Tundra. It came down to buy a 3/4 ton minimum, or make a custom frame adjustments to be able to have the correct weight distribution.

https://youtu.be/vSa3HDE50R4